The $1B GLP-1 Story Unravels, AI's New Careers, and China's 2030 Blueprint

Monday's episode of TBPN covered a wide range of developments, but the dominant thread was the rapid unraveling of the MedV narrative — the telehealth company the New York Times had recently profiled as the first "one-person, billion-dollar company." The episode also tracked AI's growing footprint in the labor market, China's ambitious new five-year plan, and a series of product and partnership announcements from companies like Sierra, Branch, and Gray Matter Robotics.

The MedV Story: From Viral Headline to Regulatory Questions

The New York Times story that went viral last week portrayed MedV as a landmark achievement: a single founder building a billion-dollar company on track for $1.8 billion in sales this year. But as the episode unpacked, the reality is far more complicated.

Jonathan Slotkin, a neurosurgeon and investor at Scrub Capital, argued the story needed to be a health story, not a tech story. The day before the Times article ran, Eli Lilly announced approval of an oral version of tirzepatide — a completely different molecule from the compounded oral GLP-1s MedV has been selling. Slotkin was blunt: "There are zero published studies on oral tirzepatide in humans." He called the products "snake oil" and noted that the RICO lawsuit against MedV centers on this exact issue.